


Guard Your Heart

by themadmage



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Brief gore/possible body horror towards the end, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Luna Lovegoods Creatures have Real Meaning, M/M, Multi, POV Alternating, Sirius Black Raises Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22690921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadmage/pseuds/themadmage
Summary: Soulmates are universal, whether a person has one or two. While a soulmate is not always a romantic partner, it is agreed that they will be tied to you eternally, a person so important as to be the heart of you. Soulmates are linked by pendants, present from birth and impossible to remove, which heat and cool in response to the level of danger that a person's soulmate is in at any given moment. This information helps you to guard your heart - upon a person's death, their soulmate's pendant will crumble to dust and the loss of a person's soulmate will change their life irrevocably.Neville Longbottom watched as his second soulmate's name was expelled from the Goblet of Fire, heralding the arrival of Harry Potter at Hogwarts at last. But how can Neville, Luna, and Harry keep each other safe through what comes next?
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter
Comments: 17
Kudos: 159
Collections: Hermione's Nook RarePair Soulmate Fest





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A first, massive thank you to [whisperedmemories](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperedmemories/pseuds/whisperedmemories) for agreeing to beta this at the last second. Any remaining mistakes are mine, but her help was invaluable. A second thank you to the mods of the Hermione's Nook Facebook page for hosting the Rarepair Soulmate Fest, of which this fic is a part. Finally, a shout out to the other authors - I had a blast chatting and writing with you all. 
> 
> Happy Valentine's Day!

The Goblet of Fire lit for a fourth time and Neville met Luna's eyes at her table, aware the sudden heat against his chest would be mirrored by her own golden pendant. The two of them knew what that paper said before the headmaster could speak a word. 

_ Harry Potter _

Neither of Harry Potter's soulmates could remember a time when they didn't know that they were waiting to meet him. The feedback to their pendants the night that You-Know-Who had attacked Godric's Hollow had made it clear, the burning heat of the impacting  _ killing curse  _ sending both infants into pained hysterics. Neville's parents had been lost to the world only days later, but it made him happy that they'd known at least one of his soulmates. His mum was Harry's godmother.

The public believed Harry had been taken by Sirius Black, traitorous Secret Keeper for the Potters. Rumors had flown that he was dead - especially when he failed to arrive at Hogwarts the year he turned eleven. Neville didn't know the truth of Harry's location or circumstances, but the Longbottom and Lovegood families both knew that wherever Harry Potter was, he was incredibly safe. The golden pendant Neville associated with Harry had been remarkably cool ever since that day.

The silver-blue pendant that Neville wore had remained a mystery to him until his second year of Hogwarts, and Luna had told him much the same. While neither had a really  _ typical _ childhood - Neville struggling to prove himself magical to his relatives, while Luna witnessed the death of her mother - the flashes of mild to moderate danger that both experienced were less distinguishable from the dozens of other children their age. Neville had learned the identity of his second soulmate when she had been petrified in her first year. The searing heat had sent him bolting upright in bed and racing towards the hospital wing, regardless of the late hour and without even picking up the protective amulet he’d bought. He had held on tight to the pendant, heedless of the burns it left on his palm, willing it not to crumble away. He couldn’t remember his pendant ever being hotter, and if the Heir of Slytherin had  _ killed his soulmate  _ -

But she had survived, saved by her habit of looking to the sky through any and every window she passed rather than straight ahead. 

Watching the Choosing of the Champions, Neville felt a flash of excitement that now Harry Potter would finally come to Hogwarts. That excitement was rapidly replaced by guilt. Luna would remind him, scolding in her not-scolding way, that he could not  _ help  _ the way he felt, and that there was nothing wrong with wanting to meet Harry properly. He was not happy that his soulmate was in danger, just that he would be present. Still, Neville squirmed with it. 

The  _ Daily Prophet  _ announced Harry Potter's selection as a champion in bold lettering the first morning of November, begging Wizarding Britain's  _ savior  _ to attend and not to run afoul of the magical contract created by the goblet. By dinner that day, copies of international newspapers had begun to circulate. Between the visiting schools and Hogwarts' international or multilingual population, there were papers printed in Russian, French, Bulgarian, German, and Swiss, Malayalam, Mandarin, Catalan, and Italian. The next day, students began receiving papers and clipped articles further beyond their usual fare. The  _ Magical Times _ , a paper widely circulated in Europe but usually ignored in Britain, and papers from further afield like the  _ Toowoomba Witchcraft Chronicles  _ and  _ MACUSA Today _ .

No one knew where Harry Potter was, and thus the news of his Choosing was spread far and wide in the hopes of reaching him. Each additional paper that Neville glimpsed said some variation of the same thing - Harry Potter needed to go to Hogwarts immediately, or risk the loss of his magic.

It was the fourteenth of November when Harry arrived, disrupting dinner entirely. He strolled into the Great Hall, alone except for a very large dog, and was ensconced in the Headmaster's office with Dumbledore before Neville could even consider going to say hello. 

Ginny Weasley sighed dreamily from down the table, and Neville bristled. "To think," she said to anyone who would listen, "I might not have been here if I hadn't recovered. But  _ fate  _ wouldn't be so cruel."

Neville stood, unable to listen to the younger girl pining after his and Luna's soulmate any longer. Her pendant, which she wore proudly displayed rather than tucked away as Neville had been taught was proper, was green. Ginny often claimed it would be the exact color of Harry's eyes, and Neville wondered somewhat unkindly which of the Slytherins had its match. Matching the pendants visually was far from an exact science. There were far more people in the world than there were easily distinguishable hues, and all of the pendants were the same shape - an infinity loop. Ginny's near-death experience in her first year would have clued her soulmate in, however, and when Neville was feeling more charitable he wondered how that person must feel about the obvious crush she had. 

Luna joined Neville at the doors, and they walked together to the gargoyle at the base of the headmaster's stairs without a word. Upon their arrival they both settled against the wall. Neville stood rigidly, trying and failing to relax, while Luna threw herself to the floor without a care, her bare feet sticking out of her overlong robes. Neville suppressed a sigh and made a mental note to owl his Gran for another pair of shoes for the girl. It was rapidly getting colder outside and warming charms only did so much when you had to stand in the paddocks for a multiple-hour Care of Magical Creatures class. 

The pair waited several hours. Both sets of their housemates had filtered by on their way to their towers after dinner. It was hell and gone past curfew, but neither Neville nor Luna showed any evidence of caring. Only one prefect had passed by on rounds so far, and Cedric Diggory had just glanced towards the gargoyle before nodding to them both and moving on. 

By the time the gargoyle moved aside, Neville’s spine was stiff and Luna had curled up on the floor and gone to sleep. Neville nudged her gently awake with his foot as stone ground against stone, and she was blinking sleepily when Harry emerged with his dog. He smiled at them, and Neville was sure he blushed bright red.

“It’s good to finally meet you two,” Harry said to them, gently touching his breastbone where the pendants laid under his shirt. The dog whined and nudged Harry’s leg. “Hush, Uncle, we agreed on this." Neville watched wonderingly as Harry and the _ dog  _ had a brief staring contest before Harry huffed, crossed his arms, and rolled his eyes. "I'm finally with them, I'm not going to let secrets come between us. If I can't trust my soulmates then I'm doomed."

The dog huffed out a breath, and Harry turned to face them again before Neville could formulate his questions into words. "Walk with me to my guest quarters? I'd really like to have a conversation with you both in private."

The door closed behind them, and Neville staggered back in surprise as Harry's dog promptly transformed into the  _ infamous  _ Sirius Black. The man was at least thirteen years older than any picture of him available to the public, but he was still recognizable. The Black family was one of the oldest in magical Britain, and they had highly distinct features that they all shared.

"You called me  _ Uncle  _ in the hallway," Black said to Harry. "You need to remember, pup, to call me Padfoot."

Harry scoffed. "Then you need to be better about pretending not to understand what people are saying. No dog is that intelligent - not even a familiar. Neville had a hundred questions written all over his face, and I'm sure only half of them had to do with me."

Black stared for a moment before nodding, and Harry nodded back before turning back to them again. "Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, I'd like to introduce you to Uncle Sirius. He didn't betray my parents and get them killed, and since he's my godfather and legal guardian his taking me into hiding wasn't kidnapping. Any questions?" Neville shook his head, Luna just smiling by his side, and Harry visibly relaxed. "Brill. That part took nearly two hours with Dumbledore. Then he insisted on a recap of my entire life with Uncle before we were able to get to the business of this tournament. I'm more than willing to tell you two all about it if you're interested, but not tonight. I'm knackered, and I think there are more important things to say."

"How did you know we're your soulmates?" Neville asked suddenly. "You weren't surprised or confused at  _ all  _ to see us waiting in the corridor, and you didn't even have to ask. Luna and I didn't know about each other, so how did you?"

Harry and Sirius traded nearly identical shit-eating grins. "We had an accomplice."

"A partner in crime," Harry added lightly. 

"Our Secret Keeper, and bringer of Hogwarts' news."

Harry smiled wider. "My dear Aunt Minnie."

"Minnie McGonagall," Sirius said with a nod when neither Neville or Luna showed signs of understanding. 

"She lets you call her  _ Minnie _ ?" Neville asked in hushed tones. 

"Nope," Harry said brightly,  _ popping  _ the p. Suddenly, he sobered and turned to Luna, taking both of her hands in his. "You haven't said much. I need you to know that when that massive snake almost killed you, I very nearly ran away from home to go to you. I might've, if I had a single way of actually getting here on my own. It took Minerva almost two days to bring us news since she didn't realize until after that event that we were soulmates, and I didn't sleep the whole time for worry."

Luna smiled sadly and brushed a hand against Harry's face. "I'm not disappointed or unhappy with you," she assured him gently. Neville wasn't at all surprised to see Harry relax. Luna had a gift for knowing what others needed to hear. "I'm only very tired. I wake up early to keep the nargles at bay, you see, and it's quite late. But I do agree that it's important we talk, and I'm in no hurry to leave you."

"Okay." Harry took a breath and repeated himself under his breath before turning to Neville, who found himself holding his breath as he waited. "I've been very glad, ever since I was a kid, that I had two soulmates. While I couldn't be with you two, at least you could have each other. And I want you to know, Neville, that just because you never had such a close brush with death as Luna and scared ten years off me doesn't mean I value you any less."

"I know," Neville said with a wry little grin. "I have two soulmates too, you know. Just because we've been waiting on you doesn't mean anything about our importance to each other."

Harry nodded, and prodded everyone in the direction of a small sitting space with two chairs. Black sat in one while Harry perched on its arm, and Neville sat in the other with Luna once again sprawled on the ground near his feet.

"So," Harry told them, "I'm here as a guest for the year. The headmaster wants me to enroll for the rest of my schooling, but Uncle and I told him it will depend on how this year goes both for the both of us. I'll start placement tests tomorrow to determine which classes I should sit in on. I'm staying in these particular quarters because they're near the teachers and I don't  _ officially  _ have an adult escort of my own, but I couldn't stay in dorms without enrolling as a Hogwarts student and being Sorted. You two, Aunt Minnie, and Dumbledore are the only ones who know about Sirius, and that'll have to be true until he can prove himself innocent. Can you keep the secret?"

"Of course, Harry, we'll always keep your secrets," Luna said as Neville nodded his own agreement.

"Excellent." Harry nodded to himself and appeared to review a mental checklist. "Well, the only thing I've been told about the first task is that I'll only be allowed my wand, which simply won't do, so if either of you have any ideas for reconnaissance feel free to share."

Luna smiled, and offered, “We could always ask the Blibbering Humdingers.”

"It's a smart idea," Neville said in the face of Harry's confusion. Luna could be difficult to decode, but he'd had over a year's practice already. Everything she said made perfect sense, if you knew the right way to listen. "The gossip mill in the school never misses a thing. Lately you've been all people have wanted to talk about, but whatever the task is is bound to catch people's interest."

"It would make sense," Black said with a nod. "It'll be designed to be a spectacle, so the preparations will be hard to hide from several hundred nosy teenagers. I can try to snoop around too, of course, between looking for Wormtail."

"Looking for  _ what _ ? _ "  _ Neville asked.

"Not  _ what _ ," Harry answered darkly. " _ Who _ ."

"The real betrayer," Luna said. Neville turned to her, only a bit surprised that she'd understood. Luna  _ was  _ brilliant. "It stands to reason - if Sirius Black did not betray the Potters, then someone else did." Her face took on a deeper look of concentration. "Peter Pettigrew?"

Black blinked in surprise. "How did you know?"

"He disappeared," Luna answered easily. "He was a friend - in a position to betray them - and everyone has said you might have killed him. You've already told us that you aren't a betrayer, so it seems unlikely that you're a murderer. It all fits."

"I  _ could _ kill him," Black said even as he nodded in agreement with Luna's logic. "But I've been wanted by the Ministry for over a decade on the assumptions you've just outlined, and I don't trust that I'll get a fair trial without some very obvious evidence in my favor. Wormtail is an animagus, too. A common garden rat."

"Do you think he's  _ here _ ?" Neville asked, his voice trembling slightly despite his herculean effort to stop it.

Black shrugged. "It's as good a place to start looking as any. A rat could hide anywhere, really, but the security of the Hogwarts wards would appeal to him, and we learned when we were in school that they don't detect animagus the same way they detect people, so if he kept his form then the Headmaster wouldn't know. I wouldn't worry too much, though. He's always been a bit of a coward and even more of a follower, but he's never been  _ dumb _ . I don't expect him to hurt anyone here - it would blow his cover."

Just then, Luna yawned deeply. Neville grimaced when he considered how long they'd been talking. Harry seemed to realize at the same time, and cast a  _ tempus _ charm which showed it was past  _ two _ . "Just a moment," he told them, before pulling a miniaturized trunk from his pocket and restoring it to its proper size and weight. The lock clicked open under his hand and Neville watched him dig through it and pull out an invisibility cloak. "This is a family heirloom, so take good care of it until you can give it back to me," he told them solemnly, "but I'd hate for you to be caught out this late and get detentions."

"Thank you, Harry," Luna said distantly as she stood up. Without a care, she placed a kiss on his cheek. Neville was amused to see Harry's face redden, but his own turned a similar shade when he had to decide how to say goodnight. After several moments of indecision, he offered an awkward handshake. Harry took his hand, and pulled him into a hug. The tug was gentle - Neville could have easily resisted if he wanted, and he thought that might have been the idea - but he went willingly. There was a newfound contentment deep inside him, and wrapping his soulmate in his arms only settled him further.

It was good to have Harry safe in his arms.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry looked over the placement results that Minnie had handed him with satisfaction, but no real surprise. While his Uncle Sirius had tutored him, sort of, much of his education up until now had been guided self-study. The fact that he had on average kept pace with his peers at Hogwarts was partially due to Aunt Minnie's nagging - guidance, she would say - but Harry thought he could probably claim some of the credit, too.

Harry had tested a year below his peers in History, which Uncle hated, Potions, which Uncle hated even more, and Herbology, which Harry had studied mostly from books. They hadn't had a garden or greenhouse space in their home for practicals despite all of the magical altering they'd done to the space over the years. (A full-sized, underground quidditch pitch, however, had been deemed essential by the time Harry turned six.)

Likewise, it was expected that he tested above his level in Defense, which Uncle had put a lot of effort into honing Harry's natural talents in once Minnie had told them of Quirrell's possession and his escape from Hogwarts - without the valuable magical artifact he'd tried to steal, thankfully - and between Aunt Minnie and Uncle Sirius, his success in Transfiguration had been assured.

"Taking two classes fewer than a Hogwarts student leaves your schedule quite flexible. As such, you are able to take both of your third year classes with Ravenclaw and your three fourth year classes with Gryffindor," Minnie said with a sly look.

Harry flushed, but didn't deny that that was his preference. It would be transparent and pointless to protest her arrangement of his schedule with his soulmates. It was lucky, Harry thought, that his Aunt Minnie was handling his scheduling on her own as the Deputy Head, so that he didn't have to feign unfamiliarity with her. Even the Headmaster didn't know yet that she was their Secret Keeper, and Harry had agreed with Uncle that they should keep that secret as long as possible. The Fidelius charm she held was only one layer of their security, but it was a significant one and putting Aunt Minnie at risk wasn’t something either of them wanted.  
Harry took the copy of his class schedule that Minerva handed him. He’d be finished with classes by two each day, and by ten on Fridays, which left plenty of time for him to look into the tournament and get to know his soulmates. The only exception was Thursdays, when he would have to attend Astronomy lessons after dark. He was honestly looking forward to that bit. The house where he'd lived with Uncle was in Bristol, and they hadn't been able to see the stars well. Astronomy lessons had taken place using a charmed ceiling in the 'observatory', which was cool, but it wasn't the same as viewing the stars directly, away from the light pollution of a muggle city in the Scottish highlands. Schedule in hand, Harry left to go find Neville and Luna. It was nearly dinner, so that meant heading towards the great hall.

Harry's first meal eaten with Hogwarts' general population saw Luna sandwiched between him and Neville at Gryffindor's table. Harry had stumbled across some older Ravenclaws mocking her and had furiously latched onto her side and refused to let go. While Uncle's school stories had featured plenty of antagonism between houses - especially between Slytherin and Gryffindor - your own house was supposed to be a haven. The idea that his soulmate was constantly surrounded by people who hurt and belittled her was unacceptable.

Down the table, a red-headed girl Harry had yet to meet was staring at him intently, fingering her pendant. Harry looked away with a barely-hidden grimace. His own pendants weren't always tucked away - propriety wasn't always a high priority in a house occupied only by Sirius Black and the child he'd raised - but Aunt Minnie always scolded him about it when she came to visit and he actually had a lot of respect for her. And he did agree that soulmates should be the private business of the people involved. There were a lot of ways to get hurt or hurt others by flaunting it. He nodded towards the girl. "Who is that?"

Neville tapped three times on the inside of his wrist - a signal they'd developed almost immediately to mean I'll tell you privately. With the secret of Sirius between them, they needed a way to avoid suspicion. "It's Ginny Weasley," he said aloud. "Youngest of the Weasley family. She's got four brothers in the school right now and two who've graduated- all Gryffindors."

Harry nodded, and tried to ignore her staring as he ate and told Neville and Luna about his testing results.

"The food at Hogwarts is really excellent," he said after a bit. Neville gave him a doubtful look. "Uncle can barely cook," Harry said with a grin, “but he refuses to have an elf in the house because of bad experiences with his family elf as a kid. So we've lived almost exclusively on bacon and eggs, basic soups, and sandwiches ever since I was just little. Uncle used to try to make something more complicated for birthdays and holidays, but I begged him to stop. Since then we got takeaways in the Muggle city for special occasions, but we couldn't go out of the house often. Not safe.”

"So you weren't able to go outside?" Luna asked him.

Harry shook his head. "That's why Uncle and I have spent so much time charming and transfiguring it into a place where we wouldn't feel bored, or trapped. Three hundred-sixty days a year inside the house. A regulation quidditch pitch in the basement was just the beginning - there's a pool that's been made to look like the sea, a dueling room, a professional potions lab even though neither of us are professional level brewers, a full library, and the star room where I had my astronomy 'lessons' has grass covering the floor like a field. Uncle was working on a garden-like greenhouse at my request, but it wasn't ready yet when we got the news and I had to come here."

Neville made a pleased sound. "The environmental charms would be tricky to set up, but I can definitely see it being worth it. What plants were you planning to grow?"

"Just some basics to start - that's how it always was with these things, the quidditch pitch started much smaller than it is now. A mixture of aesthetic and functional plants that are easy to grow, native grasses on the floor. And the other outdoor-like rooms have some basic environmental charms to maintain the illusion, so Uncle has had some practice. The greenhouse ones will just be a bit more complex."

"You might consider dittany," Neville said with a nod. "And maybe moly or wormwood. Those are all part of the first year Herbology curriculum here because they're very hardy. Flitterblooms, too. We study them later but only because they can be dangerous if mishandled; they're nearly impossible to kill. For non-magical plants, you might consider oxe-eye daisies or betony."

"We'll take your advice, but only if you repeat all of that when I've got a quill and parchment," Harry said with a teasing grin.

"You should always take Neville's advice with plants. The red-winged pademelons that pollinate magical plants like him quite a lot."

"So what's the deal with Weasley?" Harry asked Neville after bringing the other boy back to his guest quarters. They'd invited Luna along, but she'd needed to stop by the library to pick up a reference for her charms essay. Harry worried about her being there alone after what he'd witnessed in the Hall, but he didn't consider protesting. He was confident that she could handle herself, even if she shouldn't have to, and if the situation got out of hand somehow then he and Neville would know right away. Besides, Uncle had told him that the Hogwarts librarian, Pince, guarded her domain like a dragon. Surely she could keep bullies in check.

"She's convinced she's your soulmate," Neville bit out. “She's talked about it constantly, basically since she was sorted. Of course, she missed most of her second year because she was almost killed at the end of her first year - you know about the Chamber, because of Luna. Weasley was kidnapped at the end of the year and the curse breakers that someone had hired to search the school barely saved her in time."

"It was Uncle who hired the curse breakers," Harry said, nodding along. "After Luna was petrified, he saw what it did to me to know how much danger the two of you were in, so he contacted Gringotts and told them to hire the best team they could with his gold.” He paused. “So, Weasley talks about me, and she was staring at me."

"She's got a painfully huge crush on you, basically, except it's not really on you because she'd never even seen you and was already obsessed as a first year. It's a celebrity crush, sort of. Her parents used to tell her fairytales with the Boy-Who-Lived in them, Ron's said, and now she's like this. I assume she'll grow out of it, but listening to her go on about you is pretty infuriating, truthfully."

"If someone tried to call themselves your soulmate, I think I'd feel the same."

"Is your uncle here?"

"No, he's out searching for Pettigrew. I think he's trying the dungeons today. The issue is, while he can reliably recognize Pettigrew's animagus form by sight, no method of magical tracking has found him over the years so Uncle will have to find him the hard way."

"He's a dog. Couldn’t he smell his way to him?"

Harry shook his head. "As a human, his scent might be distinctive enough, but as a rat he smells just like any other rat. And I'm sure this castle has its fair share of them hiding away in its corners." Neville just nodded in agreement, and Harry took the opportunity to ask a question. “So, what Luna said before, about red-winged pademelons-”

“She isn’t crazy,” Neville cut him off sharply.

“I wasn’t going to suggest that she was. And I don’t mean to talk behind her back, either. It’s just, well, Aunt Minnie told me a bit about each of you but she mostly knows you in a class setting, and you two have had time to learn each other without me.”

Neville nodded once. “Right.” He nodded again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get angry with you. It’s just, a lot of people think she is, not just her own house, and half the school calls her Loony. I’ve gotten most of the Gryffindors our age and younger to stop with the help of the girls, but none of us play quidditch so we don’t have much sway over anyone else. Luna… She’s lovely, isn’t she? I’ve never gotten a straight answer from her regarding all the creatures she talks about. As far as I can tell, she names them herself, because there’s no mention of anything like them anywhere I’ve looked. I’ve never tried very hard to ask her, though, because with so many people mocking her over them I’ve wanted to be a refuge.”

“There’s something to them, though, isn’t there?” Harry asked when Neville trailed off. “You know she isn’t crazy, and you don’t seem to think they’re made up.”

“This isn’t the first time she’s mentioned the red-winged pademelons - and pademelons are marsupials, by the way, without wings of any color. I was in the hospital wing when Madame Pomfrey revived her. It was one of the first things she said to me. The red-winged pademelons like you. You must be excellent at Herbology. And it’s not likely she’d heard of me, either. She was a first year, and had been petrified in the hospital wing for months. It’s not like my Herbology skills were the talk of the school,” he added awkwardly.

Harry nodded. “Aunt Minnie described her to me as ‘a bit flighty, but frighteningly insightful’. If she sees some sort of, I dunno, auras? It would make sense.”

“Right. Like I said, I haven’t spent much time speculating on it, but it would. What matters most, though, is that she nearly always knows far more about a situation than she lets on. Have you managed to learn anything else about the first task, yet?”

"Not yet. I've been eavesdropping where I could," Harry said unapologetically, "but people are mostly talking about me, still."

Harry could see that Neville was about to respond when the door chimed and he had to go answer it. Uncle had set up a charm to chime when someone stood outside for three seconds, so that he wouldn't have to transform in the corridors to say the password.

"There you are, kiddo," Uncle said when the entrance was sealed and he'd transformed back into his human self. "I came around earlier, but you weren't in." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Unless-"

"No." Harry cut him off before he could say anything embarrassing, not to mention about thirteen steps ahead of his current relationship with Neville and Luna. "I was in Aunt Minnie's office getting my schedule, unless it was during the meal, at which time I was eating."

Sirius looked a bit like someone had let out his air, but Harry didn't feel bad for cutting off his Uncle's fun prematurely. "Well. Any luck learning the first task?"  
Harry refrained from sighing. "I was just telling Neville that there hasn't been."

Wednesday morning, Harry went with Luna to Herbology. Working with mandrakes heated both their pendants and it set Harry on edge, but working with Luna was otherwise a delight. The silenced earmuffs made conversation impossible, and even then her lightness was contagious. He just felt better with her around. He felt warm and happy around Neville, too, but it was a more grounded kind of happiness. It struck Harry, suddenly, that his soulmates were practically the earth and sky.

He wondered what that made him, and then wondered if this strange musing was a side effect of spending time with Luna.

Class ended and they left the greenhouses. Harry had fifth year Transfiguration next and Luna had Ancient Runes, but instead of turning towards the castle she gazed at the forest. "There sure are a lot of surken gathered over the forest."

"And what do those tell you?" Harry asked when it was clear she wasn't going to elaborate on her own.

"Hm?" Luna cocked her head in his direction as if he'd just started a conversation with her unexpectedly. Maybe he had. He thought she'd been talking to him, but sometimes she did muse aloud to herself. "They feed on secrets,” she said without looking away from the part of the forest which had caught her attention.

"Do you think they might have something to do with the task?"

"There are a lot of secrets at Hogwarts," Luna said by way of an answer. "Passageways and doors, meetings, studies of forbidden magics, recruitment for the Rotfang Conspiracy, Hagrid's spiders…" She blinked as if remembering something. "But such a large concentration, appearing so suddenly, could be to do with the First Task, yes."

Silently, Harry decided he'd be taking the invisibility cloak to the forest to check things out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luna can see magic, as per my headcanon, and refers to what she sees as creatures. The following are creatures mentioned in this chapter and their corresponding phenomena.
> 
> Surken - hidden things/secrets  
> Breshes - excitement  
> Bynrams - fear/anxiety  
> Hoshies - mischief  
> Greskies - love  
> Plainars - happiness  
> Wrackspurts - confusion  
> Peckies - self-doubt

Luna watched Harry glide through the sky, colors swirling around and behind him. Many of those same colors could be found in the clouds, and the wider sky. 

They could also be found swirling around the dragon that pursued him, but it was almost an afterthought. The golden pendant around her neck barely stirred - it was warmer when Harry went to Defense class than it was now - so she saw no real  _ reason  _ to think about the dragon besides the interesting colors it added to the scene before her. The surken had cleared away from the field as Bagman announced the task, but each of the champions and dragons brought in a unique new mix. At times, it became difficult to see through the breshes generated by the crowd. 

Neville was nervous. Luna realized that as bynrams swarmed around him. She reminded herself that he could not see Harry's lack of concern the way she could and despite the coolness of their pendants it could be a nervous sort of thing to watch. She glanced towards him and saw that he was tense, his hand near his face as though he was about to bite his thumbnail while he muttered something Luna wished she'd been listening to but would have to admit under pressure that she hadn't caught. She took his hand in hers, pulling it away from his mouth as she did. "He's safe. Feel it?"

Neville nodded, and relaxed a bit, and Luna went back to admiring the green swirls through the clouds. One of them looked like a crumple-horned snorkack. 

"So, er," Harry said. Luna turned away from the flock of hoshies she'd been watching and gazed at him. He was starting to develop some greskies, which were currently intermixed with bynrams. He was adorable, really. "The Yule Ball they've announced. We'll all go together?"

"Have you just asked us to be your dates to the Yule Ball, Harry Potter?" She watched for a moment as the bynrams increased in numbers. It was cute to see him nervous, but she didn't let him stew long. That would be cruel, and could lead to overcooking. "I would love to attend the Yule Ball with you, and I believe Neville feels the same."

Neville nodded, stirring the plainars around him into a frenzy. Both of her soulmates were a wonder in their own way. It was delightful.

"Brilliant," Harry answered, sagging in relief. Had he really been that worried? Perhaps she shouldn't have teased. "I talked to Aunt Minnie about it privately and she said it'd be fine for me to have two dates, but that I'd have to pick one of you to dance with for the Champions' opening number.”

"Luna," Neville said quickly, suddenly mobbed by bynrams.

"Okay?" Harry asked, very considerately broadcasting his confusion so that even someone who couldn't see the wrackspurts would see it. 

Neville sighed. "I'm sure you've noticed I'm shy? Scared a lot? I just-  _ everyone _ would be watching."

"I haven't seen much of that, actually," Harry admitted after a few moments' deep thought. Luna pulled herself out of her wandering thoughts to pay attention. "Minnie mentioned you lacked confidence, and I guess I've seen that in classes, but not so much between them. Maybe it's because you're spending so much time showing me around the school and helping me out."

"Well. The idea of dancing in front of everyone is pretty terrifying."

"You're a lovely dancer, Neville," Luna told him earnestly, laying a hand on his arm. She'd never seen him dance, but there was a grace and a lightness to the way he moved that promised her he would be, especially since she knew he'd had lessons. He'd told her, once, that his Gran had ensured he could both lead and follow in a ballroom dance since they'd known since his infancy that one of his soulmates was male. "And a strong leader. You just have a case of peckies. They infect you with self-doubt."

"I'm nervous myself," Harry admitted. "I don't really know how to dance, so it would be cool if I didn't have to lead. But I don't want to force you, Neville. If you don't want to, I'll take a crash course in dancing with Aunt Minnie and Uncle so that I don't run Luna into anything."

"Can I think about it?" Neville asked, biting his lip.

"'Course," Harry answered, his gentle smile accompanied by a new flutter of greskies. 

Luna marched into the guest quarters on a mission, Neville at her side. "Mister Black, you're human now, that's wonderful," she said tightly. 

"Luna, please call me Sirius."

"Harry is in danger, Mister Black."

"I'm right here, fit as can be" Harry said, at the same time Mister Black replied, "Uncle would work, too, if that's better for you."

"Not at this very moment," Neville clarified. Luna let him. Sometimes everything that swirled around her in the air and in her mind made it difficult to articulate her thoughts to others. There was so much to take in that it drew her out of the moment, or she forgot which details others couldn't notice. Neville was excellent at parsing out what she wanted to say, so she didn’t mind it when he spoke to others for her. "Every time Harry goes to Defense, his pendant heats up a lot more than it should. People are throwing combat magic around in there, so it's always generated some heat for Luna and I, but his is worse. And Luna's pendant has gotten warmer in Defense since Harry arrived."

"Yes," Luna agreed, grateful that Neville was able to say everything so concisely. "The same is true for Neville's pendant that I wear." Mister Black and Harry had both sobered and focused during Neville's explanation, a stormcloud of bynrams brewing over them. "We've come to decide how to handle this threat."

"A threat mostly to Harry, but which also affects the two of you due to your association," Mister Black repeated. "In Defense, but all three of you take different years' classes so the only things they ought to have in common are the teacher and the room... I knew Moody during the war, and he's anything but a dark wizard. He can be a bit of a zealot in the other direction, really, and he's a paranoid old bugger. A cursed object wouldn't target Harry's associates, though, so maybe he's finally cracked." He paused, and Luna followed his thought processes through what surrounded him. Fear, confusion, resolve. "I want all three of you to stay away from him, and the Defense room too, to be safe, as much as you can. I'll make a point of lingering nearby when any of you are in the class."

"But what about finding Pettigrew?" Harry asked, full of concern. Luna reached out a comforting hand, but he was farther away than she'd realized and she was only able to graze her fingers through the colors that surrounded him. 

"Minnie's offered to help me look for him in her spare time. With two of us searching, I can spare the time to help keep you all safe."

"Thanks, Sir-ius." Luna stifled a giggle at Neville's clumsy attempt to turn the honorific into Mister Black's first name. She knew he felt awkward about being called Mister Black, but he was a stranger to her and she couldn't bring herself to call him with anything less. It was what her mum had wanted her to do. And it was true that she had met Harry and Mister Black on the same night, but she'd been thinking of Harry as  _ Harry  _ for most of her life. How could someone bound to her soul ever be a stranger?


	4. Chapter 4

Sirius huffed out a dog's breath in the Shrieking Shack, and transformed back into a man. The tabby that had followed him here down the tunnel became Minnie shortly after.

"I'm starting to think he isn't here, after all. I thought Hogwarts would be the most attractive place for him, but maybe I was wrong. He could be hiding with a family somewhere, where he might hear more news?"

"Don't be giving up yet, Sirius," Minnie told him. "You've not searched  _ all _ of Hogwarts, your startling knowledge of secret passages aside, and given that you have a moving target you ought to search each place more than once."

"I've searched  _ most  _ of it," Sirius said petulantly. "The dungeons twice over, all six usable secret passages, the grounds, the towers… The elves would keep him out of the kitchens as a rat, and the dorms too since rats aren't an approved pet."

"The rules about pets have actually been significantly relaxed since your school days," Minerva told him idly. "Lee Jordan, one of my sixth years, has a tarantula in his dormitory. The elves no longer prevent any sort of animal entry to the students' living spaces as a result. The amount of activity there is enough to chase off anything wild."

The color drained rapidly from Sirius' face. "Are you telling me that Pettigrew, the Death Eater who sabotaged Order operations and got some of our best killed while pretending to mourn them with us, could be masquerading as a child's  _ pet _ ?"

Minerva paled just as dramatically. "Oh. Oh, dear. I suppose he could be." She took a deep breath. "Well, if he is, he's not yet hurt anyone and he might be unaware of your presence, depending on how much Harry's  _ dog _ has factored into the discussions about that boy in the dormitories. He has no reason to reveal himself, and thus should continue to  _ not hurt _ any children.  _ If _ he is acting as a pet."

"Right. He'd be most likely to hide elsewhere, even if he has heard. His  _ disappearance  _ has likely been convenient for him. Bloody hell, but I wish I had the map. Ten minutes and I'd know if he were on the grounds, rather than  _ weeks  _ of fruitless searching while Harry's in classes."

"Indeed, your infamous  _ map. _ I've yet to see any evidence it exists."

"Of course it exists!" Sirius exclaimed. He could see the mischief in the corners of Minnie's eyes, but he rose to the bait all the same. The lack of progress was frustrating, and playing at arguing with her had become one of his favorite ways to blow off steam. "Animating drawings is easy enough, and just a couple of runes tied it into the wardnet. The hardest part was working out the variation of the homorphus charm that would allow it to display anyone's names, and then tweaking it for ghosts and Mrs. Norris."

"On another note," Sirius said as if they'd been talking all along and he hadn't just followed her through the castle as a dog, then waited semi-patiently for her to set up her privacy seal on the door before becoming human again. "How is Harry doing? I see him at night, and he seems to be doing alright, but I worry he'd hide it from me if he wasn't adjusting well here. I've talked about Hogwarts fondly for most of his life, he knows I want him to like it."

Minerva nodded. "Academically, he is doing well. There is some adjustment to the traditional class setting, as one would expect, but he handles the material as easily as ever. Socially, he struggles at times. He seems to be bonding well with Lovegood and Longbottom, which is positive, but has branched out very little beyond them. He is without them in Transfiguration and Defense, and in my class he often isolates himself during work time unless a classmate seeks him out. Even then, he closes off to a degree if they appear to be getting off the topic of the assignment."

Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, it isn't like we had anyone his age to bring around. He's just awkward, though? You haven't noticed any real  _ distress _ or conflicts? Arguments?" Minerva shook her head. "That's as much as we can hope for then, I expect. The rest will come with time, if he gets opportunities to socialize... I want him to be able to finish his schooling here after this year, but I don't think he'll choose to unless I find Pettigrew.”

Minnie made a curious sound that reminded Sirius of her animagus.

“You remember the nightmares he had after he learned why I had to stay hidden? He stopped having the nightmares, of course, but the idea that the Ministry might find me and take me to Azkaban still terrifies him. He wouldn't even agree to come and take part in the tournament this year unless I could stay."

"It's worrisome. I hope he'll be able to tolerate separation from you once you've been proven innocent." She clapped her hands suddenly. "We're borrowing trouble. One thing at a time - tomorrow we ought to begin searching the dormitories."

"How many students can you think of who've had rats as pets?"

Sirius watched Minerva make a mental tally, before taking in a sudden, sharp breath and making for the door. Sirius hastily transformed as she began undoing the seal without a word in his direction, and followed her from the office at a light trot. 

Minerva walked like a woman on a mission - briskly without looking fearful or harried, radiating an aura of power that sent students scrambling out of her way. Years of familiarity, however, allowed Sirius to see the fear she was pushing down. His heart sank as they rounded the corner and he saw the Fat Lady. Of  _ course _ the rat would hide in Gryffindor, given the opportunity. Familiar territory. The portrait allowed them entry without a password.

"I need to speak to Weasley. Ronald," Minerva was saying to someone - presumably a perfect. The kid nodded and trotted up a set of stairs and returned with a gangly redhead in tow, dressed in pajamas that were just an inch too short.

"Professor?"

"Your rat," Minerva said shortly. "Where is it?"

The boy’s face took on a mulish set. "Scabbers? What do you want with him? I know rats aren't on the list, but Percy had him too! Lee's got a bloody spider!"

"You aren't in trouble, Weasley, but I need to know where your rat is."

"He ran away," the boy said, sagging in defeat. "A few weeks ago. 'M not sure why. Hermione's cat has been giving him trouble since she got the beast last year and he never ran for it before."

"Did he run away before or after Potter's arrival?" Minerva asked tightly. 

"Dunno… After? Yeah, after. Pretty quickly, too. Do you think Potter stole my rat? Neville would have had to let him into the tower, and I don't think he would do that to me even if they are soulmates."

Minerva ignored the boys' questions, and Sirius couldn't honestly blame her if the suspicion she was following was true. "And did you boys speak of Potter's arrival in the dormitory? Or of his companion?"

"The dog?" Weasley asked, glancing in Sirius' direction. "Yeah, prolly."

"And you said that your rat was the same one that Percival had as a student? When did it come into your family?"

"Oh, ages ago. Mum said Percy found him in the garden when we were all little and wouldn't let him go. Must've been at least eleven, twelve years? Professor, what's going on?"

"An investigation. Weasley, if the rat turns up you must swear to bring him straight to me. I promise that you will not be in trouble and that I will not hurt your pet."

_ If he's a rat _ , Sirius added to himself. Forcing an animagus' change wasn't painful, but the minutes (Minutes, hours, a lifetime in Azkaban... Who was counting?) following being discovered would be. The chances that  _ Scabbers _ was just a rat seemed slim. At least eleven years? The kid was too young to really remember that long ago, but Sirius would bet that it was shortly after James and Lily's murders and the end of the war. No garden rat lived that long, even with magical intervention. 

Sirius was following Minerva again as she marched back to her office, fury radiating from her in nearly palpable waves. 

"An animagus in my own house!" she shouted, outraged, even while Sirius was transforming again. "An adult man was masquerading as the pet of  _ two  _ of my lions and I remained totally unaware! And now he's at large and we've lost our lead."

The two sat and stewed in silence for a while longer.

"Well," Sirius said bracingly. "He'd have to transform to apparate, and he can't run far on such small legs. So he's here, and we keep looking. We just have to find him by holidays, or he'll be away on the Express.”


	5. Chapter 5

Harry could feel Ginny Weasley's eyes on the back of his neck like a dementor on his gravestone. He tucked further into his food, but noticed both his soulmates (as Luna's presence at the Gryffindor table was now commonplace) looking peevish. "What am I meant to do?" Harry asked them quietly. 

" _ Talk _ to her about it," Neville answered, a bit harshly. Harry tried not to be upset. Neville was frustrated with the situation more than with him. Probably.

"How?" Neville just looked at him. "Seriously, how? You realize that you two are nearly the only people my own age that I've ever had an extended conversation with. I don't know how to deal with this! I don't want to hurt her!"

"She's holding onto an impossible dream," Luna told him. Harry looked to her immediately for guidance. "It will hurt her to let it go, but it will hurt her more - and all of us as well - if she's allowed to keep clinging to it. She has far more wrackspurts than greskies. You just need to have a conversation with her that clears the wrackspurts away so that  _ she  _ realizes she doesn't love you - it needn't be long, but do be as gentle as possible. Then, make a clean break of it and come back."

Harry nodded. Short, honest, gentle, and come back. He could manage that. He got up and walked to where Ginny sat. "Er, Weasley? Would you…” He nodded towards the doors. “I'd like to talk to you privately."

Ginny's eyes went wide, and she nodded her head rapidly even as she turned beet red. He winced as she practically skipped after him. 

"What are you wearing to the Ball?" She asked him before he could get a word out. "I'll have my mum send me dress robes. They'll be second hand, but she's great with tailoring charms so I won't look a mess, I just need to know what color you're wearing so we can match."

"Ginny," Harry sighed. This was awful. How did you  _ gently _ tell someone who was this ecstatic that you were crushing her impossible dreams? "I can't go to the Yule Ball with you. Because I'm going with Neville and Luna. They're my soulmates."

Ginny's lip trembled, her face suddenly bloodless, eyes watering. "But- but Mum always said, she was  _ sure  _ it was you. She said my pendant got hot the night that…"

Harry slowly took out his silver and blue pendants to show her, definitively, that they didn't match her proudly displayed green one. The last of her resolve broke, and Ginny burst into tears. 

"Shite," Harry muttered. Luna hadn't prepared him for this, but surely it would be rude to leave her crying alone? Awkwardly, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. A hug always made him feel better, but it didn't usually come from the person who'd upset him quite like this. Ginny tensed first, and Harry was about to pull back, but then she sagged against his shoulder and gave in to the tears. Harry stiffly rubbed her arm and made nonsense noises, but it wasn't until Padfoot showed up and flopped his massive head in her lap that she managed a wet giggle and a few breaths that weren't sobs. 

"I'm sorry. I really always thought… But I was wrong."

"There were probably a few babies around our age in danger that night,” Harry said softly. “It was a war. Uncle has told me stories, and, well, my home wasn't the only place people got hurt or killed. The danger didn't stop right away after that night, either."

"But if my soulmate is in Hogwarts, why haven't I found them?"

Harry shrugged, unwilling to mention her awkwardly obvious crush on him. "Maybe we could find them together? Actually... Let me get Luna."

Harry raced back into the hall before Ginny could say a word. Luna looked unimpressed at first, as he explained the situation in a hurried whisper, but her features softened when Harry explained how he planned to cheer Ginny up. "Of course I'll help identify her soulmate. We need only walk with her until we find someone with the right combination of greskies and blibbering humdingers."

They had reached Ginny, who cocked her head to the side. Her eyes were still red, but Harry wasn't going to mention it. He didn't want to make her embarrassed, and he didn't know a spell to heal the redness away. 

The three walked together for hours, Padfoot wandering away and back several times, before Luna mentioned someone she considered promising. Harry nearly sagged in relief. The quest had become uncomfortable long before, but he didn't want to give up. Ginny clearly put a lot of stock into her soulmate, and she needed this right now. It might give her a sense of stability. They both nudged Ginny towards the girl Luna identified, staying behind her for moral support. 

"Hi," Ginny said, rubbing her right elbow. "I'm Ginny Weasley."

"I know," the girl said before flushing red and slapping a hand over her own mouth. "I mean, hi, I'm Tamsin. Applebee."

"Hufflepuff chaser, right?"

Applebee nodded. "And you're seeker for Gryffindor."

"Yeah, but I really prefer chaser too," Ginny confided. "There just weren't any positions in the forward line, or any good seeker candidates. I'll be swapping positions next year, hopefully. Not sure who'll be captain, but Wood was training a reserve seeker to take my spot when our current chasers graduated. So maybe next year we'll play more directly against each other."

Applebee bit her lip. "Maybe before then... we could go to the Ball?"

Harry slipped his hand into Luna's, and the two stole away to find Neville and report on their success.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation of creatures for this chapter:  
> Hoshies - mischief  
> Nargles - dishonesty with varied levels of malice  
> Blibbering Humdingers - jealousy with varied levels of malice  
> Plainars - happiness  
> Wrackspurts - confusion, can also occur from being lost in thought  
> Greskies - love
> 
> There is an explanation of another possibly confusing, but also spoilery, bit in the endnotes.

Luna watched George and Fred approach with a keener eye than most would see from her. The Weasley twins were always a hotbed of hoshies, but their level of nargles and blibbering humdingers varied day to day. She was relieved and pleased to note that they carried  _ none _ today, and only displayed evidence of what most would consider positive feelings. Luna was of the opinion that all feelings were positive, because feeling meant you were living, but she did understand that anger, sadness, and the like were less enjoyable. 

"You two helped our sister," George said.

Fred continued. "We tried to tell her, Potter, after you started spending all your free time with Lovegood and Longbottom that they must be yours, but we couldn't get through to her."

"Most people wouldn't have blamed you, you know, if you'd just given her the news and left."

"But instead, you spent hours trying to help her find what she’d thought she already had."

"Even if it is with a Hufflepuff."

"Better than a Slytherin," Fred muttered. 

The thoughts bouncing back and forth between the twins' heads on lilac wings settled. Harry must've noticed, too, because he spoke up. "It just seemed cruel, you know? To leave her so sad."

"I had thought Harry would let her process those feelings on her own," Luna admitted before the twins could restart their bouncing. "But I was pleased with the outcome of his plan. Ginny and Tamsin Applebee are already growing quite close. Hufflepuffs are quite loyal, you know. Their common room is perfectly located to grow greskies and plainars."

"Right."

"We wanted to thank you," George picked up the thought from Fred. Luna saw out of the corner of his eye that Harry's head was rotating back and forth like he was watching a quaffle. Luna pitied him that he couldn't watch the thoughts instead and save his neck some trouble. 

"We thought to give you this," Fred said, pulling a worn piece of parchment from his pocket. 

Harry's eyes widened briefly, but he restrained himself from reacting outwardly any more so Luna didn't mention it. Harry was practically bursting with plainars, though, as Gred and Feorge explained how to operate the map.

"We've got it memorized," said a twin who was unsure of who he was at the moment.

"But we figured since you're new here, and since you might come next year, you might have a use for it," said the other. They were settling back into Fred and George, but they were the opposite of when they'd been George and Fred. 

The twins cleared away, bouncing more thoughts between them, and Luna turned to Harry. "We ought to bring that to your monkey's uncle," she told him. She didn't want to reveal that Mister Black was here, but she'd long known that if she buried truths in fancy, only the dedicated would hear them. "It would help him with his mousetrap."

"You're right," Harry said after a moment’s deciphering. “Let’s go.”

Mister Black was in the guest quarters on a lucky break, and he joined Harry in feverishly pouring over the map for Pettigrew. Luna's eyes danced idly over the map as they did, until she noticed that one marker glowed differently than the others near the Defense room. 

"Mister Black? What modifications did you make to the charmwork on this map? Specifically, to the portion that registers names."

Mister Black looked startled, and a bit disgruntled to be interrupted, but to his credit he didn't ignore her. "It's a homorphus charm, but we modified it to give the correct identification to animagi, people under invisibility cloaks or powerful disillusionment, and polyjuice potion. And to pick up ghosts and Mrs. Norris."

"So, if Barty Crouch is in the Defense office, he may not be who he claims to be?"

Mister Black followed Luna's line of sight, before giving a full body startle. He snatched the map and tucked it into his pocket. "I'm taking this to Minnie, there's definitely more than one problem in this school. You two," he pointed to each of them in turn, "Stay safe. Stay  _ here _ if you can. If I see Neville, I'll send him along."

Then, Mister Black transformed in a truly beautiful magical display and trotted off. 

"Barty Crouch?" Harry asked beside her. "Hasn't he been sick since the first task?"

"Things aren't always as they seem," Luna answered calmly. "The disguise has been cracked, and now the pieces can come together for us and apart for them."

At dinner that day, it was announced that their Defense professor all year had actually been Death Eater, and apparent Azkaban escapee, Barty Crouch, Jr., who was supposedly dead. (Under pressure, Luna would have to admit that she hadn't anticipated the situation having quite that many layers.) The real Alastor Moody had been locked in a trunk, where he surely had collected a great many wrackspurts due to boredom. The real Moody would begin teaching them following the holiday break. 

This news  _ almost _ disrupted many Yule Ball plans, but teenagers and children were resilient, especially in their pursuit of an enjoyable night. That was something Luna had seen many times over. 

The week leading up to the ball was headache inducing. It wasn't that Luna wasn't as excited or pleased as everyone else, because she was, but many of the upperclassmen were feeling amorous and greskies in large numbers created a mind-numbing buzzing. Combined with the fact that she didn't fit with her housemates on a good day, and Luna took to sleeping on the sofa in Harry's guest quarters. Professor Flitwick had to know she was missing, so she wondered what conversations he'd had with the prefects, and who left them with more wrackspurts fuzzing their brain. 

While the school was in a frenzy of romance and anticipation, Mister Black was working together with Professor McGonagall to slowly cut off all exits for Peter Pettigrew using anti-animagus wards. They'd decided that as long as he was kept in the castle, they could wait until after the ball to trap him properly, when they were less likely to ruin the only formal event Hogwarts had had in possibly centuries. It was true, Luna thought, that a frightened and desperate Death Eater would not make good after-dinner entertainment. 

Luna was happily watching Harry and Neville open the ball with the other champions. Neville truly was an excellent dancer, and he made Harry look practiced. She could see Ginny Weasley across the room with Tamsin Applebee, and both were collecting a nice bunch of greskies -  _ without  _ wrackspurts. It was nice - both to see Ginny Weasley properly happy and to not have to worry quite so ardently about how she would impact Luna's own situation. 

The first dance ended, and Luna joined the flood of people onto the floor. Instead of cutting in and taking Harry's or Neville's place however, she just wrapped an arm around each of them and began to sway with the music. Why should they have to choose? Harry laughed and immediately joined Luna in her swaying, and before long they had worn Neville and his years of training down to the point where he joined them. The buzzing of greskies was drowned out by the music, and Luna just let herself get lost in the swirls of colors - both from formalwear and from magic - and the warm joy of the company. 

When it grew too hot, Neville suggested the rose gardens. Once there, Luna noticed a bug that wasn't a bug - spending so much time around Mister Black had really helped her learn to recognize animagi visually. She'd been keeping a weather eye out for them, especially any rat shaped ones. This was a beetle, not a rat, but she gently steered Harry and Neville down another path. Under a snow-covered tree, and completely alone, the three of them exchanged hesitant and blushing first kisses. 

They danced in pairs and as a trio all throughout the night, and by the time Luna fell into bed that night she thought she might burst with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I headcanon that twins share magic, and that the Weasley twins do so on a very deep level. What Luna is seeing in the scene with the Weasley twins is a direct result of this. Both the bouncing thoughts and the mutating of the names Luna assigns each twin are manifestations of their shared magic.


	7. Chapter 7

Neville sat alone in the stands, two pendants clenched in his fist. They were hot, but that was to be expected when  _ both of his soulmates were underwater _ .

Harry had gone under just ten minutes ago. His pendant flared and cooled rapidly, presumably as he encountered various creatures or other obstacles. Luna had gone under sometime in the middle of the night. The heating of her pendant hadn't been extreme enough to wake Neville or Harry, but it had left both of them deeply troubled during breakfast. 

Neville tried to distract himself from the wait for the next flare with thoughts. He'd ordered gillyweed for Harry weeks ago after Sirius had caved and helped them solve Harry's egg. How had they chosen one of Harry's soulmates to go under, had they flipped a galleon? Was Sirius ever in the running? Was a magical method used for selection, or did the hostage choices have to be submitted by someone?

Thinking wasn't helping. Neville was still shaking with nerves. He was also still alone. He wished that at least Padfoot could have sat with him, but Sirius and Professor McGonagall wanted to make the final capture of Pettigrew while the castle was essentially empty. 

Fleur was brought to the surface by a merperson, empty-handed. Harry's pendant flared again and Neville flinched. Fleur was wailing, screaming for her sister. Neville flinched again, for a new reason. Veela were creatures of fire, it had to be uncomfortable for even partial-Veela like Fleur and her sister to be in the lake for an hour, let alone half the night. 

Neville glanced at the clock. Time was nearly out. 

Viktor Krum surfaced with Hermione Granger. They'd discovered they were soulmates in November, but Neville would have put money on them being a pair that didn't turn out romantically if he were the type to bet. Hermione was infatuated now, but she was ultimately a very practical person and Krum lived in Bulgaria where he attended a school that did not allow the muggleborn to enroll. They may be lifelong quillfriends and confidantes, or something else entirely. It didn't  _ have  _ to be romantic love, for soulmates. That was just most people's first guess. (First hope, really, a life partner who understood you perfectly. It was a very romantic idea, but it was not a guarantee. It took luck and work in equal measure, just as any other relationship.)

The timer ran out, and Neville was searching the surface of the lake tensely when both pendants suddenly flared so hot that Neville nearly dropped them. Instead, he held tighter as he fought his way to the judges. Neville pushed through knot after knot of students and invited guests without a care. 

"They're in trouble!" Neville shouted, loud as he could muster as soon as he thought that he might be within hearing distance. "Please, they're in trouble!"

Headmaster Dumbledore was holding a conversation in Mermish with the Merchief, but Neville couldn't honestly care a mite less. "They're in  _ trouble! _ "

"Young man," Karkaroff said gruffly. "Get back. This is a private space for the judges."

"You people put my soulmates in that water and now they're both in  _ mortal danger _ !" Neville shouted. He was being terribly rude, not to mention bold, but he couldn't care less. The pendants were not quite as hot as when Luna had seen the basilisk's eyes, which Neville assumed was comparable to when Harry had been struck by a killing curse as an infant, but they were burning his hand as he clutched them. Harry and Luna could die at  _ any moment _ . At any moment he could lose both his soulmates, and he was trapped in Hogwarts waiting for Dumbledore to have a pleasant chat. 

Fleur was screaming again, and Neville slowly realized that was the only sound he could hear. He'd been pushing closer to the judges' box the entire time he'd shouted at them, and had gotten close enough to be inside their sonorus charm just in time to scream the words  _ mortal danger _ . 

And little Gabrielle Delacour, nine years old, was also not back. Neville felt sorry for the French champion very suddenly. At least he could keep track of Luna and Harry by the pendants. The chances that Gabrielle's soulmate was available were slim-to-none. 

Professors and aurors who had been on hand for crowd control started ushering spectators out as quickly as possible while Ministry workers arranged a magical scan of the lake. As suddenly as their danger levels had increased, Neville didn't believe they'd find them there. 

Neville had refused to be moved out with the crowd, as had Fleur Delacour and, somewhat surprisingly, Ginny Weasley. 

"I know he's not mine," she said defensively when Neville glanced at her. "And I think Tamsin and I will be quite happy, once Mum gets over it all. She plays chaser and is full of life. But I do want to consider Harry my friend, if that's alright."

Neville just nodded. His lips were pressed tightly together because if he opened his mouth he'd start screaming again.

"Zero human presences within the Black Lake," Neville heard a Ministry witch report. His heart sank, despite the fact that he'd anticipated that. 

The stands had been empty of people just minutes when a port key flashed on the dock, dumping two heads of silver-blonde hair in a heap just as Neville screamed in pain. Luna was screaming, too. 

"He was  _ hit! _ " She shouted, scrambling for her pendants with one hand while the other held to Gabrielle tightly as if one or both of them would die if she let go. Gabrielle herself was sobbing and babbling in French, one ankle at an angle that strongly suggested it was broken. Fleur latched onto her sister's side, and Luna let Fleur take the girl so she could use both hands to search for her pendants. "He's alive," she sobbed in relief. Neville reached her on the dock, unsure when he'd actually started moving, but knowing he needed to be as close to Luna as possible. "He's alive," she whispered this time. "Don't tell anyone, but it was another killing curse."

"I think I'll need Madame Pomfrey to treat the burns on my hand," Neville admitted, gesturing with his still-closed fist. "It was hotter than your petrification, and by more than I'd have guessed."

Neville led Luna to the stands, so she could sit. She was shaking, and she wasn't even speaking in riddles the way she typically did.

"Miss?" One of the aurors asked. Neville and Luna looked up at her, and her hair flashed yellow. Luna almost smiled, so Neville decided not to be too surly with the woman. "I'm Auror Tonks, and I need you to tell me what you can about what's happened. I know it's not what you want, but it could help us save Mr. Potter's life without losing others in the process."

Luna nodded shakily, and Neville tightened his grip on her. "Gabrielle and I woke up from the enchanted sleep during a portkey - as soon as we were no longer underwater, as intended. Gabrielle, I believe, broke her ankle in the landing. None of us were prepared, you see." Luna's voice was deceptively placid, but Neville could still feel her shaking and his heart ached for her. Harry's pendant was still whole and hot in his hand, and Neville clung to it too. "It was a graveyard, but I didn't recognize it at first. There were no plants, or at least not living ones. Someone, a  _ horrible  _ voice," Luna shuddered. "It said,  _ kill the spares _ . Gabrielle was confused and upset and hurt, so I had to pull her out of the way of a killing curse. I couldn't see who cast it. They fired another curse-"

"Another killing curse?" Auror Tonks asked. 

Luna licked her lips. "I'm not totally sure. Harry threw himself in front of us, you see, because we were too much on the ground already to move out of the way properly. He pushed us back a bit, and we landed on what must have been the portkey. It brought us to the dock."

"That was meant to be the emergency retrieval system if there was a problem during the task," Auror Tonks informed them. "It was tampered with, clearly. We've got aurors reconstructing it to find the location you were taken to, but that takes time."

"Yes, well, the curse meant for us hit Harry, but it's still whole." She held up the golden pendant in her open palm. 

"Okay. I'll pass this on. We'll do everything we can for him."

"Thank you," Luna whispered. As soon as the auror was gone, Ginny slid in beside Luna and wrapped an arm around her from the other side. 

They waited. A familiar black dog trotted along the walkway to them before transforming into Sirius. 

"It's Sirius Black!" An auror shouted, quite unnecessarily. 

"It's alright!" Sirius said, hands in the air speaking quickly. One hand was holding a parchment. "You would find, should you check, that two of your company have just taken Peter Pettigrew, marked Death Eater, into custody. I have an excuse note from Madame Bones! I am no longer to be arrested on sight. I've been kindly requested to present myself for voluntary questioning at my convenience. Anyone can take the note as long as they don't curse or cuff me. I raised the kid you're meant to be looking for, so I'm already under quite a bit of stress."

It was Auror Tonks who took the parchment, muttering to herself about him calling it an  _ excuse note _ . She seemed to be the default personnel on-hand for taking difficult situations. "It checks out," she announced. "It's got Bones' official magical signature, and the correct code for signing unexpected documents of her own free will."

Slowly, the aurors went back to what they'd been doing. Sirius sat on the bench behind them and placed a hand each on Neville's and Luna's shoulders, staring steadily at the pendant Luna still held in an open palm.

"You got the rat, huh?" Neville asked, a bit dully, not turning around. 

"Yeah," Sirius half-grunted. "Nearly lost him when a stadium full of people were rushed in ten minutes earlier than expected, but we got him. Rolled up his sleeve and there was the Mark. My arm sans Mark was enough in combination to get me an interview with the Head of the DMLE. 'Course, as soon as I learned  _ why _ everyone was herded in, I insisted it be cut short. Hence, the voluntary questioning."

They lapsed into silence. Neville tapped a foot on the ground, and listed magical plants from A to Z. His hand was still white-knuckled around two pendants. 

Auror Tonks hadn't been joking when she'd said that portkey reconstruction took time. It had been an hour - an  _ hour  _ that Harry had been alone in a graveyard with at least one, probably two, murderers willing to throw killing curses about and who knows what else. Karkaroff had disappeared at some point. Madame Maxime was sat with the Delacours. Most of the aurors were standing around waiting on orders at this point. 

A distant  _ bang  _ set everyone on alert, but the pendant had finally gone almost completely cool. Luna was crying on his shoulder again, this time in relief, and Neville finally loosened his grip on the pendants. 

" _ HEY! _ " Shouted a familiar, blessed voice. "ANYONE GOT CHANGE FOR THE KNIGHT BUS?"

Behind Neville, Sirius bellowed out laughing. "The bloody  _ bus _ !" He transformed into a dog and bounded over, presumably to pay the conductor for Harry's ride out of Styx. 

Sirius came back slower, a badly limping Harry hanging on one side of him. "I taught him to call it in case of emergencies. I was thinking he might get separated from me on a takeout run. Couldn't have imagined this, but I'm really bloody glad I taught him."

Neville pulled Luna up, and they both threw their arms around Harry, loosening their grips when he winced. "It was Voldemort," Harry whispered. "He needed my blood to come back completely, instead of just possessing people. He was still using Quirrell's body, I think, from years ago, but it was all emaciated. He was still on the back of the head. I think Quirrell had died already."

"Bloody hell," was all Neville could say. 

"Indeed," Luna agreed weakly.

"Don't scare me like that again," Ginny added from where she'd put a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder. "I'd like to keep my new friend."

Sirius laughed weakly. "The bloody  _ bus. _ "

Aurors were creeping in, no doubt to question Harry about the last hour. There was definitely a whole lot of horrible coming. The interviews, to start, but also a  _ war _ , probably. 

For now, though, Neville still thought it was good to have Harry safe in his arms.


End file.
